The continued levy
of Environment Compensatory
Charge (ECC) at entry
points to Delhi to cut pollution
is facing a roadblock with
one of the toll companies
threatening to quit rather than
go through the “headache” of
collecting the money.
Moments after a threejudge
bench led by Chief Justice
of India H.L. Dattu threatened
contempt action against
the toll companies if they
failed to comply with its October
12 order to collect ECC
from commercial traic entering
the National Capital,
the hearing, at the Supreme
Court on Monday, witnessed a
sudden turnaround when one
of the companies, SMYR Consortium
LLP, blamed the apex
court for not following the
“absolute minimum requirement
of fairness and principles
of natural justice”.
Senior advocate Shyam Divan,
appearing for the company,
challenged the jurisdiction
of the apex court to impose
the “humongous” obligation
of collecting the ECC on the
toll companies without even
giving them a prior opportunity
to be heard.
Mr. Divan, who argued for
over an hour and well into the
lunch break, said there is “no
question of contempt at all”.
“This court had no jurisdiction
to impose such obligations
on me without following
the basic tenets of fairness
and principles of natural justice
by hearing me first. Let a
fresh tender be called. Let
someone else do this. I don't
want this headache. I don't
want this Damocles sword
hanging over my head
through the entire period of
my contract,” Mr. Divan
argued.
He submitted that company's
“intricate” contract with
the Municipal Corporation of
Delhi did not originally contain
any clause to collect ECC.
He said he cannot aford now
to bear the costs and personnel
involved in collecting the
ECC. Added to that, he said
there is a risk of pilferage by
company personnel of money
collected as ECC, which is
“government money”.
Again, he said that out of
120 entry points to Delhi,
many do not even have
electricity.
“This is extremely excessive
and improper. We feel
there was no application of
mind to the intricacy of the
business contract... I am risking
far too much. Allow me to
go,” Mr. Divan said.
Senior advocate Gopal Subramanium,
for another toll
contractor, is yet to argue. The
next hearing is on November
27.
At the beginning, Chief Justice
Dattu had sternly made it
clear that the “Supreme Court
is not going to change a word
of our order”. This observation
came after the court
learnt that despite its order,
no ECC was collected between
November 1 and 6 and
SMYR Consortium LLP,
which has been levying toll on
behalf of MCD, is coming out
with all “sort of submissions”.
On October 12, the apex
court directed that ECC, between
Rs. 700 to Rs. 1300,
would be charged for a period
of four months starting from
November 1, 2015 to February
29, 2016 on an experimental
basis.
The court had blamed the
pollution in the Capital on
polluting commercial vehicles
driving through Delhi to
skip a higher toll tax charged
on alternative routes.
‘Number of vehicles
entering Delhi down’
The number of
commercial vehicles
entering the Capital has
gone down since the
imposition of an
additional ‘green tax’ last
week, if the private toll tax
collector of Delhi is to be
believed.
As per orders of the
Supreme Court, an
additional Rs.700 or
Rs.1,300 (depending on
the size of the vehicle)
had been imposed as
‘environment
compensation charge’ on
commercial vehicles from
November 1. The toll tax
concessionaire, SMYR
Consortium, had only
started to collect the
Environment
Compensatory Charge
(ECC) from midnight on
November 6.
The contractor has
claimed that the number
of vehicles coming to
Delhi has fallen by 30 per
cent in the past week,
something which the
Supreme Court order had
hoped for. To reduce the
pressure of highlypolluting
trucks, the
Supreme Court directive
was meant to dissuade
vehicles that pass through
Delhi but are not destined
for the Capital.
Though the fall in
vehicles may be good
news for Delhi’s future air
quality, the municipal
corporations, which are
responsible for toll tax
collection, are having to
face a shortage of
revenue.
The contractor, which
pays the weekly toll tax
amount on Tuesdays, has
deposited less than it is
supposed to as per the
contract.
The South Delhi
Municipal Corporation,
which is the nodal agency
for toll tax collection,
issued a notice to the
contractor on Monday.
“The weekly payment
should be Rs.10.54 crore,
but the contractor has
deposited Rs.7.32 crore
citing a fall in the
vehicular traic.
However, this is a
violation of the contract
as the amount is fixed,”
said a senior SDMC
oicial.
The oicial added that
the contractor had 15 days
to respond, failing which a
penalty may be levied for
breach of contract.
Meanwhile, the
contractor had filed a
petition in the apex court
saying that it won’t be able
to levy the additional
charge.
The matter was heard
on Monday, when the
contractor said the
imposition of the ECC
was outside its
jurisdiction.
